Col de Bretaye
	Height	Climbing height
	1806m	1378m (Bex); 1328m (Ollon) 863m (Les Planches/Le Sépey)
	Difficulty	Beauty
	South 4 (5); North 3 (5)	4 (5)
How to get there	The road from the Bex (428m) via Gryon (1114m) and Villars-s-Ollon (1253m) is quite nice with mostly open views of mountains all around. It is also quite steep in places, but the road is almost flat between Gryon and Villars. On this latter stretch a railway with trains is occupying half of the road and you better watch out here! The road from Ollon (478m) via Villars is also steep, but I have not cycled it. It should be slightly wider and probably has more traffic. Both these roads from the south meet in Villars and just as you climb out of Villars in the direction of Col de la Croix (1776m) you will see a narrow, tiny road break off up the mountainside. This road is not marked with any directional sign and only has a sign saying it is only allowed to be used by motorised vehicles of the locals. This road is very steep and may be hard to use if it is wet with gradients up to around 20% here and there. A train actually also climbs this mountain to the pass and you will meet the railway at Col de Soud (1524m) and you will come very near to it at another train station which is also a pass – Col des Bouquetins/de Beaucul (1759m). The train stops at the pass and here the asphalt also finish. The road down to Les Planches/Le Sépey (943m) via La Forclaz (1261m) has good enough gravel surface to be used by racer bicycles and just before La Forclaz the asphalt returns.
Other comments	There is a restaurant at Col de Soud and there are restaurants at Bretaye and also a hotel. In La Forclaz (also a pass, at least by name) I also saw a small hotel. The gravel road down the north side of Bretaye should be followed down straight ahead and at a first road choice you should take left (otherwise you soon get to another restaurant by a nice little lake) and then go around the lake just mentioned and pass over another unnamed pass and then it is just straight ahead down. There are splendid views from the pass and I am sure they would be even better if you followed some of the paths from the pass to higher points. [CH-VD-1806a]